Chapter 6: Humans Plan Their Way, but the LORD Determines Their Steps

(Rewind: Five months.)

In February, Mom and I had escaped the house for a few hours to enjoy a walk along the beach. On the drive home, with no provocation whatsoever, she asked:

“What’s the most important thing to you in a man? I know it’s random, but I’m just curious.”

My response was automatic. “That he loves God more than he’ll ever love me, and lives like it.”

She hadn’t quite heard. “And what?”

“Lives like it.” I repeated. When she hesitated, I explained further. “Not just someone who says he believes in God, but someone whose actions prove that it’s true.”

Mom paused for a moment, considering.

Then: “God’s waiting for him to be obedient.”

She stated it so simply, so matter-of-factly. I knew deep in my Spirit that this was important.

Searching for more, I prompted, “Yeah?

She took the bait, continuing in the same sure, steady tone. “It’s not an easy thing for a man. To put God first. Above his car, above his tools. And especially above a woman.” She smiled cheekily. “Because women are so awesome.”

I laughed. “We are pretty awesome.”

She grew serious again. “But once he’s obedient, God will bring him into your life. It’s not that he’s rebelling against God—like, he’s already saved and everything. He just needs to be obedient.”

“Well, he should hurry up and be obedient then!” I joked.

Another pause. Suddenly, Mom said, “Wouldn’t it be great if God brought a prophet into your life to tell you about your future husband?”

I laughed again, this time at the irony of her statement. I hadn’t grown up immersed in the prophetic, but I had learned enough to know that her words were prophecy.

And she had no idea.

She misunderstood my laughter and tried to defend herself. “No, I mean like—”

“I think you’re the prophet,” I interrupted, trying to keep the mood light, though her words weighed heavy on me. “You sound pretty prophetic to me!”

Mom laughed with something not entirely disbelieving. “I guess we’ll find out when you meet him.”

~

In March, I sat with Danny and a few others in our first small group meeting. We were going around the circle, each offering a prayer request for ourselves.

When it was Danny’s turn, the first word from his mouth: “Obedience.”

The word transported me immediately to the conversation Mom and I had that previous month.

The words I had written down, even told a few of my friends.

The words that I knew to be prophecy.

But, after the half-second it took my heart to recover after hearing Danny say that word, I dismissed it.

I, who didn’t believe in coincidence. I, who believed the words my mother had spoken to be absolutely true.

Because there was no way her words could have been about Danny.

I did not love him. I never could.

Never, never, never.

~

Five months later, that conversation haunted me.

~

I have often warned my friends about God’s sense of humor. “Don’t tell God that something will never happen,” I’d say. “It’s a guarantee that it will.”

My mom once said she’d never have boys. (She had four.)

My friend Kayla once said she was never getting married. (Two years ago, I was a bridesmaid in her wedding.)

~

But my situation was different. Danny was one man out of a couple billion. The odds were in my favor.

It was safe to think it. Say it, even. Out loud. To my friends. To God.

I’ll never fall in love with Danny.

~

(I can hear it now: the sound of God laughing.)